Not just any old criticism, this is a calling out

One of the features of the General Election campaign is the curious concept of politicians being ‘called out’ when they’re perceived to do something wrong.

Apparently people can’t just criticise or discuss things any more, they have to ‘call out’ anyone they disagree with, as it would appear from the many news reports in recent weeks to feature the seemingly compulsory ‘calling out’ of alleged wrongdoers (or wrongsayers).

The phrase has more than a hint of the classroom about it - naughty boys and girls being called out to the front of the class by teacher.

Inevitably, much of the ‘calling out’ process takes place on social media, always a hotbed of tolerance and calm, reasoned debate. It’s not just in this country. Former US President Barack Obama made some pertinent points recently about the approach. He said: “If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right, or used the wrong word or verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because I called you out”, adding “that’s not bringing about change”. Indeed. If anything, being angrily berated in public only makes people more entrenched in their views, as we’ve witnessed in the endless debate over the EU, something only a handful of people beyond Ukip headquarters had strong views about a few years ago.

Sometimes we’ll get a real-life, all-action ‘calling out’ when people try to get on the TV news - and usually succeed - by angrily confronting politicians on the campaign trail. Most of the time, these ‘members of the public’ turn out to be plants.

With another few weeks of ‘calling out’ still to endure, it’s probably a bit too much to expect everyone to call it in after December 12.